Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[chaseracer]

17 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

The replacement sill is narrower than the original which became a pain.  

We had similar issues with the race car.

[Andyrew]

19 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

We had similar issues with the race car.

It made attaching the b pillar to it a bit of a pain aswell.  All theses panels I've used I had to tweak and fight with more than I had hoped.

 

[Andyrew]

C what I done there?

With the pan and sill in place I could re-do the C post. The main bends were done on the bender but the folded lip and the small return was tediously the old way. 

The basic bits done and cut oversized.

Small fold to match the original and a Bend on the other side where the inner wing panel goes upto

In place with all of the clamps, the two but weld joints on both skins are staggered for a bit of strength 

And zapped in. 

No wing mounts yet, will probably weld nuts on captive, and the joint to the sill need a curve panel making up.

[Tickman]

Some brilliant work going on there.

Love the get it done motivation.

[Andyrew]

Up next was the N.s inner wing. After soon bending , tweaking and trimming I managed to get it into a shape that seemed to fit nicely. When I had removed the old inner I'd been a bit eager and torn the odd bit on the top part and trimmed a bit much on one section son had to but weld the joint. Thankfully this welded absolutely lovely. I was expecting to be blowing through and many swears. 

At this point things got more expensive. 

[Andyrew]

This part may seem a bit odd.

A very low miles dyane, just look at that boot and inner wing. Never been touched. 

The photos below don't show it very well but under the shite it's heavily pitted.  The inner wing it's all over it. When I un picked the n.s inner the joint flange from the boot floor was very flimsy and need localised repairs. I could either spend ages repairing and still have all the SHULTZ shit on it or just spend the money and replace it. So Ecas got the call and a boot door and the floor to seat box panel was ordered.  

 

[Andyrew]

In between some of this the painter in the unit opposite had asked if I could have a look at a job he had in. I've done a few bits in the past, usually shite stuff that might need something making up to fix it.

I've fixed a fibreglass manatou forklift bonnet, new flange on a mk1 golf filler neck, crushed sills on a transit, a voyager that had full speed reversed into a lorry, a sorry looking new viva that had a kick in the arse cheek and door swap on a side swipped mk2 mr2.   

Some random shite then, this time it was to weld a bonnet latch on this MG , the bonnet pin had ripped out and someone had badly  mig welded a nut in place and fitted a new pin and spring. The welds failed. This would be because it had and Ali  bonnet! 

No pics of the repair but as i cant weld ali I ended up folding  a 2mm steel plate with a 3/8 nut welded on, that was then panel bonded aswell as some rivets to mount it. I made it the same shape as the destroyed original ally part and once it was painted you'd never have noticed it. These aren't my cup of tea to be honest but it sounded rather lovely.

Along with this I also fixed the exhaust on the painters own E30 cabrio, only used in the sun, 40mm drop on some white bbs splits. Lovely. 

The exhaust had been caught on a ferry ramp years ago, so a leak at the front joints, the middle joints had rotted and cracked and the back box had a large blow. Ruining that sweet 6 purr.

Whilst a new system would be ideal, most new stuff is shite and if it isn't shit it's expensive so I patched it up for him. The back box was after market but must be old as the steel on the box was 1.5mm thick! The joints had rusted together so took some beating to get appart. The joints were long and one pipe had a crack as it had gone very thin. so luckily I could trim back some of the bad bits to fresh steel. The bit that had cracked was cut off

With this cut I then managed to remove the last part. I neatened it up and flipped it round to weld it back on after sanding back back the other part to thick steel.

The back box then, I marked up where to cut and would you believe it was right on the bloody inner structure parts. I cleaned them back but the shit kept contaminating the weld so I had to do one pass then grind back and go over any crappy bits

Good enough, new clamps obtained via work, refitted using a blob of gungum repair past on the joints. As I've found this helps take up any gaps when fitting a wallered out exhaust or just a crap one. 

Fired up and sounded lovely. 

Both these jobs were done and in exchange for the favour. The dyane bodyshell gets painted, I'll do the prep and get a tin of 2k high gloss colour. 

He will do the rest and any panels I want blowing over aswell. 

Whilst i can paint and have a large ish compressor, I'm happy with this, it saves me buying all the consumables, hardner , a gun , filters etc etc.

[jonathan_dyane]

You’re doing a cracking job with the Dyane, I know just how hard they are to weld! Can you buy the inner rear wings easily now? They used to be almost impossible to find.

[beko1987]

Its looking really good now it's fresh metal and sprayed black, nice one! 

[Andyrew]

14 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

You’re doing a cracking job with the Dyane, I know just how hard they are to weld! Can you buy the inner rear wings easily now? They used to be almost impossible to find.

You can, a few years ago it was ones made to original spec at something like 500 quid for a pair.  

The ones I've got are from Ecas and are branded "best classic parts" at 80 quid a side. Zintec coated. Not a perfect fit but that's pattern parts for you. 

 

 

[chaseracer]

9 hours ago, Andyrew said:

You can, a few years ago it was ones made to original spec at something like 500 quid for a pair.  

The ones I've got are from Ecas and are branded "best classic parts" at 80 quid a side. Zintec coated. Not a perfect fit but that's pattern parts for you. 

2CVGB do many Dyane bits now, inc. inner rears at £224 a side ?

Much of the race car's shell is made up of the Ecas panels; I think they're Dutch manufacture and they're more than adequate, but do need some fettling as you say...

[Andyrew]

Old boot gets the boot, dyane gets a new boot to boot!

With one old and one new inner wing it was time to fit the boot floor, this was if I had alignment issues I'd be able to compare between original and replacement.

Out of the box the part looks nice but I could see some tweakage would be needed.

The upright part of the wheel well,

That's about 5mm off with the floor section 

N.s was alot better

Clamped in the car, 

Below is under the rear lights where the panels  have a angle on them and spot weld together, the curve on the panel seemed a bit soft and needed pulling in alot

The panel opens out as it goes towards the rear seat.  The floor panel seem to be too far forward. Same both sides.

I spent a good while putting in and out, shaking it all about and I concluded that some trimming was needed.

 

[Andyrew]

With the panel back out, and my fingers still attached, I needed to straighten, re fold and trim this flange. Which is 1 metre wide.

I want the start of the new fold from the very edge of that bead / pressing round 10mm further back and make it a Sharp fold.

Starting from one end I started to flatten out the old bend, then chucked some clamps on working along it. 

 clamped a bit of bar stock and box section either side using all of the clamps again and into the vice it went. Another pair of hands was needed at this point but I just struggled and swore at it a bit. 

In the vice I needed some pressure on the panel whilst I worked along it end to end with a block of wood and hammer.  My shite broom was deployed, the end crushed and clamped to a bandstand 

Sucess! You can see below the amount the fold has mover back

[Andyrew]

The issue of the the two bends lining up on the inner wings had got smaller but not completely perfect.  Close enough for clamps to pull the gaps up tho. The issue is if you make this right somewhere else will have a bigger problem. 

Like so

This section was a bit off before and has now moved in more. 

To pull this back I took the floor out again. Straighten the bend, then bent it again with a larger radius further in. This would be needed on the other side aswell to fill that alignment step.

 

Yep. That works for me, zap it in. 

Zap zap, 

Me being me, I added some stitch weld for added OTT. They will be under sealer so won't notice afterward.

Das boot!

[Andyrew]

Boot floor now in, I was happy that the offside inner wing could come out. For the most part I used the air chisel like a barbarian. Then the remainkng sections get the spot welds drilled off and cleaned  up. 

Upon cleaning up near the back light, like all over the rest of the car there was some hand brushed paint. I whizzed over this and a bit of filler dust appeared. It was all ground out with a paint removal disc on the die grinder.

Whilst access is so good now's a good time to make this a bit better. 

Spray a bit of red and went over with a sanding block just to show the highs and lows. 

A bit of tool misuse and it's a bit better. Still needs a skim of bog but about 1/4 of what was in there. 

 

[Mr Pastry]

1 hour ago, chaseracer said:

2CVGB do many Dyane bits now, inc. inner rears at £224 a side ?

Much of the race car's shell is made up of the Ecas panels; I think they're Dutch manufacture and they're more than adequate, but do need some fettling as you say...

Is anyone seriously going to pay £224 for an inner wing which won't get a second glance once assembled - and will probably need a bit of fettling anyway - when a pattern part at £80 is perfectly adequate?  I am a member of 2CVGB because 2CV and ex Dyane owner, but I'm not sure I want my subscription wasted on that sort of thing.

[Andyrew]

24 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Is anyone seriously going to pay £224 for an inner wing which won't get a second glance once assembled - and will probably need a bit of fettling anyway - when a pattern part at £80 is perfectly adequate?  I am a member of 2CVGB because 2CV and ex Dyane owner, but I'm not sure I want my subscription wasted on that sort of thing.

It's alot of money that's for sure for 2 panels.

I'm in deeper than I wanted to be with these cheaper panels

Boot £100

Inner wings £160 pair

Sill £80

Floor pan £70

Seat box £200 ( that stings)

Rear floor filler panel £60 

 

 

 

 

I'm off for a little cry.

[richardmorris]

 the company is SPOG spun out from 2CVGB.

http://2cvgbparts.co.uk/

[Mr Pastry]

Even so, I doubt whether it is commercially viable at that price.

[Andyrew]

7 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Even so, I doubt whether it is commercially viable at that price.

Not at all, when these were the only type avalible then maybe but now the cheaper ones are out these will be a hard sell. I'd doubt they would commission any more to be produced. 

 

 

[Yoss]

Seriously impressed with your rate of progress. 

[Andyrew]

11 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Seriously impressed with your rate of 

It's 5 years procrastinated, 1 months rushing!

[Andyrew]

Yesterday was spent ripping out the old seat box again like a savage with Brutus the air chisel and on the joint to the floor I drilled out the welds as the drivers side floor is fine. 

[Andyrew]

Around 6 hours Yesterday, getting them where I wanted and 20mins today zapping them in. We have a floor again! 

Found more rust under the quarter window  which needs repairing before the ns wing can go on. The c post will receive the same repair as the other side and the rear half of the sill will be repaired.

Then it's body off time for little parts to be made. And some welds that can be accessed at the moment.

 

[chaseracer]

Don't let Hairnet see this - he's giving me enough grief already about my Dyane!

[Andyrew]

Yay!

Ohh no!

 

FUDGE!

[chaseracer]

Blob of MIG and grind back!

[Tickman]

Just a minor delay with the way you are going with this.

[Andyrew]

Long time no update.

Dyane progress has stopped at the moment as im currently working 6-7 days a week and "days off" are booked holidays.  some evenings have been spent fixing other friends and familys cars, 

Good news as of yesterday tho 

After some heavy revs the day before and thrashing the crap out of it down a dual carridgeway the cat cleared out and this year the emmisons were spot on. 

Coming up tho, the disco is getting awoken from its months of slumber and its in a sorry state .  an allegro and visa of a certain shitter are coming in for a bit of sparkle stick action. And a mates series 2 popping in for a pre winter patch on the chassis.  

[Andyrew]

Not much of an update since the Astra MOT, it just does its thing, a rear shock worked its self loose. More paint has peeled off the front and its due a service in a few hundred miles. Appart from that its doing fine. 

The disco was dragged from its lockdown slumber and used occasionally.

Ive had the 6s VP in for a bit of sparkle action but   In the past few weeks tho some plans changed which has put any project tinkering on hold for a few weeks.